Specialized K-9 Units Help With Search For Missing Hiker
ELDORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - Boulder County search crews will return Tuesday to Eldorado Canyon to look for a missing hiker as detectives will try to find out more about the moments leading up to his disappearance.
A third day of search still hasn't yielded any clues in the disappearance of 53-year-old David Robles from Westminster. Robles told his family on Saturday he was going for a hike and never returned for dinner. The last ping from his cellphone was at 1 p.m.
"We kind of pulled it back in to search kind of the immediate area around Eldorado Canyon State Park," said Sgt. Dave Booton with the Boulder County Sheriff's Office about Monday's search.
The state park has been at capacity, and while it serves as an access point to more than 20 miles of trails, the popularity of the area has lead searchers off the trail and into the wilderness to try and find Robles.
More than 50 emergency responders and volunteers searched land and water on Monday. Even three teams from Front Range Rescue Dogs helped out.
"She can smell human scent from someone say laying on a hillside or something she works off-leash and she goes out and finds the scent, when she finds the scent she comes back and tells me by barking at me," said Terrie Kirkpatrick about her 8-year-old dog Tia. "It's a lot harder when there's so many people."
"She knows her job. Earlier this morning it was great to see her. She'd be going along the trail, she'd stick her head out over the edge of the trail to catch the scent coming up. Rivers are great because they carry scent so she'll go into the river," Kirkpatrick said.
Tia has been state certified for five years and mainly helps with cases in Boulder County's rugged wilderness near the Continental Divide, but has also helped out on searches throughout Colorado.
"We have never found out later that the person we were looking for was in the area that we were searching. She's found several people but most of the time we're assigned to areas the person is not in, but that's okay, because that helps us narrow down, we don't need to search that area we can move on to another area."
Additional Resources
The Boulder County Sheriff's Office released the following information about this case:
The Boulder County Sheriff's Office is asking if anyone saw Mr. Robles (Saturday) or has any information on his whereabouts to contact us immediately at 303.441.4444.
Jeff Todd joined the CBS4 team in 2011 covering the Western Slope in the Mountain Newsroom. Since 2015 he's been working across the Front Range in the Denver Headquarters. Follow him on Twitter @CBS4Jeff.
